DIY Skirt Extender

We all have them.  That skirt or dress that isn't too short until we try to cross our legs.  It can be hard to find dresses that are long enough.  I have had a dress sitting in my closet for years that I have wanted to wear that was given to me but it has always been just a little too short for my liking.  (not the dress in the picture though haha)  But this last Mothers Day I wanted to wear something new but I didn't want to go out and buy a new dress.  Because I'm cheap.  So, I had a thought come to my mind.  At Seagull Book and at different boutiques I had seen skirt extenders.  Which as the name suggests, are a skirt that you wear under your skirt or dress to lengthen it.  They are really cute, but it was Saturday night and the nearest place I could get one is an hour and a half away.  So I decided to go the DIY route, and it only cost me $5!

Tea Party Bridal Shower

This last weekend I helped my mom with a bridal shower for a good friend of ours.  She seriously is one of the sweetests girls you could possibly meet and we wanted to do something special for her.  We did a Tea Party theme, because it TOTALLY fits her personality.  And what a tea party it was!  My mom loves to throw parties, which is a trait that was passed on from her mother, which she got from HER mother.  They all have loved dishes, and my mom inherited a lot of beautiful dishes from my grandma.  We don't drink actual tea, so the pretty teacups and saucers that they collected have never really been used but this was a perfect opportunity to break them out and show them off!  Antique hankies, doilies, and tea towels with hand stitched embroidery and tatted lace from my grandma and great-grandma that have been folded neatly in dusty boxes were also brought out and used to decorate.  We polished off some of their old brooches, pins, and pearls to add a little sparkle to the table.

 

Long Time No See!

Wow it has been so long since I last posted.  It's kind of embarrassing that it is now May and to look back and see that the last thing I shared was a HALLOWEEN PARTY!!!  And that there wasn't much before that either.  This last year was kind of a flop on posts, but I had a few reasons.  I am still new to blogging, and am not to the point where I'm months ahead in prepared posts just waiting to be posted.  I am still at the point where if I put something up, it's because the paint is still wet and I literally JUST finished it!  Haha but I hope to get better at that.  

This last year was extremely crazy for my little family.  We temporarily moved out of state for a few months for a summer sales job my husband had, and then we moved back again. So we had two moves last summber/fall, and now we are about to move again!  Also, we had another baby in December!  SURPRISE!  His name is Rockwell Oaks Ritchey, and we are so in love.  

So between moving a few times, a billion doctor visits, a new baby, and an extremely tenacious toddler, I haven't been up to taking the time to document anything I've done.  But I hope to start sharing things again! So stay tuned!

(And I have become increasingly aware that the color in my photos look suuuper off on other computer displays for some reason, so I'm trying to figure that out.  If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong please comment!  Haha thanks!)

Witch Party

I love Halloween!  I think that I get it from my mom because she does too.  I just helped her throw a little party for some family friends, and it turned out so cute!  Basically we had fun decorations, and a ton of yummy food, so what more could you ask for??  So here are some pictures of our Witch Party.  Hopefully you can get some fun ideas for any Halloween parties you may be throwing yourself!

The Living Christ Challenge

I'm back!  I know it's been a long time but I'm finally getting back into the swing of things.  We were in Maryland for a couple months this summer, and then we moved and my husband started a new job when we got back so things have been a little crazy around here.  But now that we are finally settled and not going anywhere I feel like I can get back to sharing some fun things!

So for this first post back from the long absence, I am actually sharing something that I DID NOT MAKE!  No, all credit for this one goes to my amazingly sweet and thoughtful husband!

I love General Conference, and I really enjoyed the Women's Conference this year.  If you didn't get to watch it, Sister Neill F. Marriott gave a wonderful talk titled Sharing Your Light in which she shared a story about attending a girls camp in Alaska where the Young Women all memorized “The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles.”  She then shared:

“I have now begun to learn the words of “The Living Christ” as these sisters did, and because of their influence I am more fully experiencing the sacramental covenant to always remember the Savior as I repeat over and over the Apostles’ testimony of Christ. The sacrament is taking on a deeper meaning for me.

My hope is to offer the Savior a Christmas gift this year of having “The Living Christ” memorized and securely held in my heart by December 25th. I hope I can be an influence for good—as the sisters of Alaska were for me.”

As she said this, I felt like this would be a wonderful goal to challenge myself to, even though I know that I am getting a lot later start than she probably is.  I shared this desire with Evan, and the next day, he came home with this book.  

HERE is the PDF link

Wanting to help me in any way he could, he had spent lots of hours that day breaking down the document into 13 different sections, so that I could work on one each week and have the entire thing memorized by Christmas.  He also had it laminated and spiral bound!  The first week is already done, but I have just kept thinking that this is such an amazing tool that he made, and it needed to be shared with anyone else who also has felt inspired to memorize “The Living Christ.”

Instructions on how to use the book:

Each page has one portion  of “The Living Christ” on it.  At the top of the page is the whole portion without any words removed.  As you moved down the page, it repeats the same portion three times, taking more words out as you go.  Read through the whole thing several times, and then take the next section down on the page (with some words removed) and work on trying to memorize which words have been taken out.  It will get harder as you work on sections with more and more words removed.  Eventually after you have mastered the last section, it will be all about saying it with no visual clues.

Some sections are longer than others, but some are really short so you can play catch up some weeks if you fall a little behind.  I have already finished the first section, and this book has really helped me a lot.  I hope that if you take this challenge like I did that you enjoy it as much as I do!

Pink and Gold Polkadot Easter Wreath

This wreath is one of those things that just kind of took form.  I didn't really have a vision for it.  I already had the foam wreath and I knew I wanted to wrap it somehow and make it pretty for Easter.  I went to Hobby Lobby and I found this thick canvasy type ribbon with gold polka dots on it that I fell in love with.  However, Hobby Lobby has a million cute things and they also had this same type of ribbon but with gold chevron... and they had burlap ribbon with colored patterns...  So many cute things!  I changed my mind a million times and walked back multiple times to grab something different but kept coming back to this gold polka dot one. 

Burlap and Egg Carton Flowers Banner

Later post today, but I totally forgot to take General conference into consideration.  I love all the messages that we hear from them.  I had several young women over for the morning session and when Elder Holland got up for the first full talk one of them literally cheered out loud!  Haha I think they were excited to hear from him.  And it was wonderful to hear President Monson talk about the Cultural Celebration that they participated in.

Anyways here is the banner that I promised I would share.  It was really easy to make, and I love how colorful it is.  I had a bunch of scrap papers and burlap left over from different projects so I stared putting things together and this was what I came up with.  I really like how it turned out.  And you can use any colors that you like.  (Haha and don't pay attention to the stuff on top of the shelf! It's not finished)

Here's how I put it together, it was so hard. ;) 

 You can use your own pattern if you already have one or don't like the shape I used, but 

HERE is a PDF 

drawing of the shape and sizes I did.

1. Cut your first shape out of cardstock for the bottom layer

2.  Cut your 2nd slightly smaller shape out of burlap and glue to the piece you just cut out.

3. Cut your 3rd and smallest shape out of a different cardstock and glue to the burlap

4. I drew my letters for the banner I made, but you can find a font that you like and cut out then trace onto the cardstock from the bottom layer.  Cut those out and glue on top of all three layers.

5.  Use a hole punch and put two holes on either side of the shape and thread whatever ribbon, string, jute or yarn that you like through the holes.  

(I have about 10 miles worth of jewelry hemp left over from jr high when the pooka shell necklaces were so popular, and I just braided several strands together.)

6.  I hot glued the flowers from yesterday's post right onto the rope.  I left about an inch and a half to two inch gap between each shape and glued the flowers in between.